i thought is post a log here of soemthing ive been working on on and off for a while now.
i started this back in november, its been on the back burner for no particular reason untill the last few days, ive probably invested only about 10 hours so far in labor. but today was a glorious day in the 70's so got a good chunk of it done!
dont mind the dirty pool back there!
my goal way back was to build an outdoor flood and drain system that can be broken down... thats size is flexible... and above all is cheaper then the overprices commerical ebb and flow systems.
this thing is built from 1-1/4" pvc with furniture grade 4 way and 3 way elbows.
the trays are just 12$ cement mixing trays from lowes, they are every bit as rugged as an actual flood and drain table.
for a pump i used a 1/2hp sump pump i had laying around... one can be had on ebay for like 50 bucks im betting.
for a controller i used a lawn sprinkler irrigation( with a few modifications) box... purchased on ebay for like 30 bucks. it can control up too 8 solenoids and a delay master valve.
here it is.
you can see here that i wn old ired in bits from a12 awg extension cord. the male piece powers the whole system, inside there is a tiny j box i split the main power over to a simple 24vac relay that is controlled by the timers master valve timer. the 1/2 hp pump draws like 8 amps on start so a beef relay is necessary.
this is the manifold that sends water to the tables. its kinda wacky, but not too bad. each zone has a sprinkler valve and a check valve. basically water flows through the solenoids when the system activates the zone ... water flows through it for w/e time is set. then the solenoid closes forcing water to move back into the system through the check valve. the down side to this is that the checkvalve has a minimum cracking pressure of like 1psi... this causes a lot of resistance to the water flowing back down from the tables which results in slow drainage.
hasnt been all gravey tho, turns out that the drain hole in the bottom of the stock tank leaks
, not from the threads but from somwhere else. bits of the manifold also leak... i guess im not so hot with the pvc cement. i also still need to cut some shims for the tables as the concrete deck they are sitting on is heavily slanted.
you can see here how badly the deck leans
i know you are probably saying just cut the legs to w/e legnth you need... but i want this thing to work well on flat ground moreso than uneven.
here is how the fill and drain lines are layed out. basically each row is its own zone. so they are all connected to a pair of 1" pvc fill/ drain lines.
the overflow lines from each zone are tied together with a tee.
anyway, for now im happy with this leaky mess. so i went ahead and put my lettuce plants into the system
they have been badly neglected, ive only fertilized them like once in 6 weeks. they are in pure coco.
i gave them a lovely dose of home made fertilizer
i started this back in november, its been on the back burner for no particular reason untill the last few days, ive probably invested only about 10 hours so far in labor. but today was a glorious day in the 70's so got a good chunk of it done!
dont mind the dirty pool back there!
my goal way back was to build an outdoor flood and drain system that can be broken down... thats size is flexible... and above all is cheaper then the overprices commerical ebb and flow systems.
this thing is built from 1-1/4" pvc with furniture grade 4 way and 3 way elbows.
the trays are just 12$ cement mixing trays from lowes, they are every bit as rugged as an actual flood and drain table.
for a pump i used a 1/2hp sump pump i had laying around... one can be had on ebay for like 50 bucks im betting.
for a controller i used a lawn sprinkler irrigation( with a few modifications) box... purchased on ebay for like 30 bucks. it can control up too 8 solenoids and a delay master valve.
here it is.
you can see here that i wn old ired in bits from a12 awg extension cord. the male piece powers the whole system, inside there is a tiny j box i split the main power over to a simple 24vac relay that is controlled by the timers master valve timer. the 1/2 hp pump draws like 8 amps on start so a beef relay is necessary.
this is the manifold that sends water to the tables. its kinda wacky, but not too bad. each zone has a sprinkler valve and a check valve. basically water flows through the solenoids when the system activates the zone ... water flows through it for w/e time is set. then the solenoid closes forcing water to move back into the system through the check valve. the down side to this is that the checkvalve has a minimum cracking pressure of like 1psi... this causes a lot of resistance to the water flowing back down from the tables which results in slow drainage.
hasnt been all gravey tho, turns out that the drain hole in the bottom of the stock tank leaks
, not from the threads but from somwhere else. bits of the manifold also leak... i guess im not so hot with the pvc cement. i also still need to cut some shims for the tables as the concrete deck they are sitting on is heavily slanted.you can see here how badly the deck leans
i know you are probably saying just cut the legs to w/e legnth you need... but i want this thing to work well on flat ground moreso than uneven.
here is how the fill and drain lines are layed out. basically each row is its own zone. so they are all connected to a pair of 1" pvc fill/ drain lines.
the overflow lines from each zone are tied together with a tee.
anyway, for now im happy with this leaky mess. so i went ahead and put my lettuce plants into the system
they have been badly neglected, ive only fertilized them like once in 6 weeks. they are in pure coco.
i gave them a lovely dose of home made fertilizer
